THE row gripping East Lancashire's flagship library as staff fear their jobs are threatened by 'serve-yourself' machines being installed in a £1million refit may revolve around the introduction of new technology, but the issue itself is an old-fashioned one.

It is that of whether the relentless march of progress brings improvement.

And when it comes to our libraries, it is a process that has been demonstrated repeatedly and, despite trade union concerns about the impact this latest development may have on staffing levels, arguably, it has always been for the better as far as users are concerned.

In a generation, public libraries have gone from being starchy, almost church-like institutions reeking of furniture polish and a paternalistic, mind-improving ethos -- which actually deterred many -- to hands-on, friendly places delivering to people what they want.

And just as a recent Audit Commission report showed that library users are borrowing far fewer books, so have libraries become more involved with lending videos and CDs and providing computer access to the Internet and e-mail. The result has been they are no longer old-fashioned founts of knowledge and literary study, but institutions that blend learning with leisure and communication. And to survive and stay in demand as a public resource, they have to not only follow this progress, but also steer it.

It is, therefore, only another instance of the process when we see Blackburn's central library -- already hailed by the government as one of the most advanced in the country -- embarking on installing equipment that issues books and tapes in the same way that banks' cash machines dispense money and introducing creche facilities to make it more accessible to parents.

And though such progress may entail pain, what sustains it is the inescapable fact that, ultimately, it is popular. After all, would our libraries be used as much as they are if they were still like they were a generation ago?